Kanto Corporation was established in Oregon in 1990 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Kanto Chemical Co., Inc., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Kanto established a U.S. presence at the insistence of our customers and our first several years in the United States were spent providing products and services directly from Kanto Chemical Co., Inc. in Japan.

To fill a market need, our customers demanded a more local supply, and we responded by building our Portland Manufacturing Facility - which opened in 1996. This venture has been extremely successful in meeting the needs of our customers, and we continue to expand. A list of key dates in our U.S. history is as follows:

1990 

First Installation of Chemical Dispense Systems

1996 

First U.S. Production of Chemicals

1996 

Alliance with Stanford University

1996 

First Supply of Bulk Chemical

1996 

Award of Complete Chemical Distribution Systems Contracts at Five New Facilities

Since
1990, Kanto has made a $50 million investment into the U.S. market, with
a purchase of 11.2 acres and the building of a 70,000 square-meter facility
in Portland, Oregon. It is our intention to continue the expansion and production
capabilities of this facility. Please take a virtual
plant tour of our facility on this website.

Our Portland Manufacturing Facility has world-class cleanroom facilities; filling and inspection rooms are Class 100. We also have a premier analytical laboratory on site, which is capable of ppt-level metals analysis and has assay proven beyond third-party laboratories. The design of this entire facility is modeled after our fifth successful factory in Ohmuta, Japan, and engineered using lessons learned from over 50 years of experience.

We believe that product quality is the result of proven production systems and continuous improvement. Kanto Corporation's quality management system has been certified in accordance with ISO 9000. All critical processes are automated and controlled to stringent standards and all critical interfaces in Total Quality Management are clearly defined in relation to one another.

Kanto is committed to the safety of its employees, customers, and the environment. Kanto has a comprehensive safety and health program and an excellent safety record. There has never been an incident in the four-year history of our Portland Manufacturing Facility that has resulted in a chemical spill or release requiring special hazardous materials response capabilities.

In addition, Kanto Corporation is undergoing ISO 14000 certification. We have worked within the EPA guidelines to develop an extensive Risk Management Plan for our Portland facility. It is important for Kanto to act in an environmentally sound manner, and to support our customers in doing the same. For this reason, in 1999, Kanto joined the NSF/SRC Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing. For information about the ERC activities, please visit http://www.erc.arizona.edu/.

Approximately 40 years ago, Kanto started high purity chemical research and development. Since that time, Kanto has led the process chemical industry in research and development investment, which has resulted in unmatched product purity and technical expertise.

As the Japanese and worldwide markets have evolved, Kanto has led the industry in developing proven systems, combined with an exhaustive quality process; this has resulted in consistently delivering the highest quality products. Our ability to stay on the forefront of industry trends has enabled us to grow to our current leading worldwide market share of over 30%.

United States
In Portland, Oregon, Kanto has one production plant, engineering and design services, and two customer service centers. A third customer service center is located in Texas, and a fourth in Virginia. This base has allowed Kanto to gain total supply awards at five new facilities, growing our market share to over 10% in two short years.

Japan
Kanto has five production plants (all ISO 9000 and ISO 14001 certified), two R&D centers, engineering and design, and 22 customer service centers. Our largest customer base is in Japan, where Kanto has a market share of greater than 50%.

Most importantly, Kanto has been involved with the semiconductor industry since it's earliest stages in the 1960s. We have grown and invested heavily in the industry throughout our history.

Taiwan
Established in 1991 originally as a joint venture between E. Merck and Kanto, Merck-Kanto supplies to over 70% of the Taiwanese market. In Hsin-Chu, we have one production plant, local engineering and design, and one customer service center. We have recently expanded our Taiwan presence with an additional production plant and customer service center, both located in Tainan on the southern portion of the island. Our major involvement in the foundry segment of the business has led to many innovations and forced us to develop very sophisticated inventory management practices that meet the varying needs of foundry work.

Singapore
To better serve the rapidly growing South East Asia market, Kanto has opened a headquarters office in Singapore and established operations in both Singapore and Malaysia.